Data communication is a key enabler to the FAA NextGen Air Transportation System program. The NextGen Air Transportation System program is a comprehensive overhaul of the National Airspace System (NAS) by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in order to make air travel more convenient, dependable and safe. As the utilization of NextGen applications increases and services are materialized, the capacity demand on the data communication networks is growing. Conveying huge amounts of NextGen data traffic over the already fully occupied Aeronautical VHF frequency band is becoming a critical challenge to the overall NextGen success. The increase in data transmission capacity is supported by the development of new Aeronautical Telecommunication Network (ATN) protocols, which allow data rates up to 31.5 kbps in a single VHF channel, known as VHF Data Link Mode 2 (VDL 2).
Currently, the VDL 2 radios of air-based communication stations and ground-based communication stations do not have a sophisticated power control mechanism. Instead, these communication stations transmit data at a pre-fixed power level, which leads to limited channel spatial capacity, inefficient spectrum utilization, and eventually results in requiring an excessive amount of frequencies to meet the NextGen data communication demand. Accordingly, there is a need for a power control mechanism, which augments spatial capacity by reducing transmission power, thus boosting spectral efficiency.